


The Curl of a Sigh

by okaypianist



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Music, Musicians, Soft Ben Solo, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 14:33:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29227032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okaypianist/pseuds/okaypianist
Summary: During the last song in Maxine’s set, a song she announces is called “Soul Companion,” Ben heads back out to the lobby to look for Rey. He finds her not with his eyes but with one broad shoulder, when he bumps into her and knocks her gig bag out of her hands and onto the plush carpet.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36
Collections: To Find Your Kiss: The Reylo Fanfiction Anthology's Valentine's Day Exchange





	The Curl of a Sigh

**Author's Note:**

  * For [irridesca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/irridesca/gifts).



> This is a gift, and a pinch hit! I hope I was able to do this prompt justice in time! :)
> 
> Prompt: In a world where your soulmate mark is one half of a whole (can be anything, usually representative of your bond, i.e. half of a flower, moon) but they only appear on your skin when you're within close proximity of each other. Some people never find their marks. Rey and Ben's appear when they're at a Valentine's Day speed dating party. (up to you on if he's a participant or just at the same venue for whatever reason)

**I want old love: the kind that takes years**

**to turn to gold, love, burnished and seared**

**on the high wire, by rain, wind and sun**

**with the hard times forgiven and done…**

As the gathered crowd cheers, a beaming Rey Johnson shakes her head, rolls her shoulders and tightens her grip on her gig bag. How can this be real life? She wonders. Being asked to play this event alongside Maxine Rebo, one of her all-time favorite musicians, is like a dream. Little does she know she’ll experience two dreams coming true tonight.

_“Oh, Ben, I can’t,” Rey moans._

_“Yes you can,” is Ben’s smug reply, slightly muffled from his position between her thighs._

The Hanna City Hotel in Chandrila is hosting a speed dating Saint Valentine’s Day event in their biggest ballroom. Why Maxine agreed to play here, Rey has no idea. She knows why she would agree to be the opening act- she’s a musician. She likes working. She likes getting paid, getting seen, and getting potential new fans. Maxine Rebo has plenty of fans, and another leg of a tour starting up in two weeks. Why interrupt her break time for this? Of course, Rey won’t ask that, she’ll just continue to marvel at her luck.

Maxine had people watching her eagerly just during soundcheck. Rey expects no one to pay much attention during her own soundcheck, and for the most part, no one does. The booth makes adjustments for her. The lights tech does things that aren’t at all relevant to what Rey is doing at the time (good thing all her songs are memorized, because the stage goes dark several times for no reason Rey can discern). The most eager attendees, the ones who are clearly here for Maxine and not for the actual speed dating, drift away when they hear that Rey’s preferred style is a little different- though influenced by the style of solo women with guitars, like Maxine, of course.

One person. That’s all it takes. If you can captivate one person- if you can reach one heart- you are experiencing a successful show as a musician.

One person stops in their tracks, out in the lobby, and blocks most of the light streaming through the open doorway with their massive frame.

_“I love you,” Ben sighs almost dreamily._

_“I love you too, Ben, now move,” his wife replies, digging her heels a little harder into his back to encourage him further._

Ben Solo the composer lives in Chandrila, and he has a perfectly fine apartment most of the time, thank you very much. It’s just that on this day, of all days, his building’s pipes had to burst, and he had to go stay in the Hanna City Hotel while repairs were happening. The stay was paid for, but… Valentine’s Day? The day when the usually understated, elegant hotel is given over to gaudy strings of paper hearts and gigantic bouquets? Why can’t he just be somewhere with peace and quiet and taste?

After a few boring hours in his admittedly lavish room, Ben wanders down to the lobby, hoping to find a suitable convenience meal in the shop that won’t be a zillion dollars, and he hears music. It was clearly live music and not something piped into the speakers, because the strums and vocalizations were stopping and starting, and the singer was speaking to someone. So he heads to the source of the noise, and he sees… Rey.

_“This room is so beautiful. This has to be the best room I’ve ever stayed in.”_

_“Yeah… definitely can’t beat the view.”_

When Rey’s soundcheck is over, she thanks the booth and goes offstage. Ben knows he has to see this woman again, and he prepares himself to stay for whatever lecture is going to be taking place, but then he remembers it's Valentine’s Day. No boring lecture will be held today. Just a speed dating session. Ugh. Surely he can just hover in the back and watch the musicians without having to make timed small talk and fold himself into a dozen different small metal chairs? So Ben looms - something he is told he does quite effectively, between his height and his suits and his unusual and asymmetrical facial features - and Ben waits.

Rey’s official set - welcoming the guests, telling stories between songs, pausing for polite applause - is breathtaking. She sings about loss and grief and loneliness in a way Ben usually only hears in metal, but she’s sort of like a folk singer… maybe Ben likes folk music now. Maybe his old man was onto something.

The main musical guest of the evening is apparently not Rey, but someone named Maxine Rebo. Ben enjoys her performance, but he cannot help but wonder if the athletic brunette who opened for her has left the building yet or not. During the last song in Maxine’s set, a song she announces is called “Soul Companion,” Ben heads back out to the lobby to look for Rey. He finds her not with his eyes but with one broad shoulder, when he bumps into her and knocks her gig bag out of her hands and onto the plush carpet.

“I’m so sorry, ma’am,” Ben says, reaching for the bag on the ground. She says, “Oh, that’s all right, I am forever walking into walls” in her charming accent, which confuses Ben a little - he is clearly a human being and not a wall - and then, as he reaches to give her the bag, their hands brush.

**_Like hope on a string, sewn into the linings_ **   
**_for the courage to face the unknown ahead._ **

A rush of heat comes to Ben’s wrist, even sharper and hotter than the burning in his cheeks from his nervous flush. He looks down at their mysteriously still joined hands - that’s odd, when did he grasp hers? - and he sees a mark has formed just above each of their wrist bones.

A soulmate mark.

Half of a guitar has been etched onto each of them.

His first thought, which he recalls months later, was “So this is who all my songs will be about from now on.”

Somehow, Ben must have found the power to draw on the legendary charms of his father and grandfather when he says, “Hi, I’m Ben, and I see we have a lot to talk about,” because Rey smiles and follows him upstairs.

_“Do you ever think about what would have happened if your apartment hadn’t kicked you out that day?”_

_“Sometimes… but I know I would have found you. At a show. On the radio. In my dreams.”_

Ben and Rey spend their first night together without having any sex at all. They talk and laugh and joke, and then they fall asleep snuggled together in the fancy king-size bed. Their friendship, their trust, their passion and their marriage all take a little longer. Magical wrist marks aside, they discuss it, and they agree to take their time with each other. They know they’ll be experiencing all of those classic relationship “firsts” for the very last time.

Rey swiped a list of "suggested topics for conversation" that the hotel was handing out at the speed dating event. "I wanted it for a keepsake, since this gig didn't come with programs or anything," she explains, and Ben knows without a doubt that his wrist mark is right. He will love this woman for a lifetime. They jokingly tackle some of the silly suggestions on the list, and it blossoms into real conversation that makes him feel understood, just like her songs did.

They do eventually marry, in Naboo, with a honeymoon at the beautiful Varykino. Still, the Hanna City Hotel remains their favorite hotel in the world, and so they return when schedules allow.

_“I wonder if it means something that you found me during ‘Soul Companion,’” Ben muses, blissed out and staring at his gorgeous wife._

_“Of course it does. It means you’re going to have to record it with me as a duet someday, dear,” Rey answers._

_“You know I only sing on demos, and for you.”_

_“We’ll see about that,” and with that, Ben knows he’ll record a cover with her someday if it will make her happy. He prefers composing and arranging to performing of any kind, but he’ll put up with being in the booth for a day or two as long as his best friend goes with him._

_Anything for his soul companion._

**Author's Note:**

> Maxine Rebo is a Max Rebo reference from Star Wars, but also I gave her two songs from the Mary Chapin Carpenter catalog, Old Love and Soul Companion (a duet with James Taylor). The title of this fic is from Old Love. My apologies to music and to movies for this unusual mashup. :)


End file.
